{"597505":{"#nid":"597505","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Navigational View of the Brain Thanks to Powerful X-Rays","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIf brain imaging could be compared to Google Earth, neuroscientists would already have a pretty good \u0026ldquo;satellite view\u0026rdquo; of the brain, and a great \u0026ldquo;street view\u0026rdquo; of neuron details. But navigating how the brain computes is arguably where the action is, and neuroscience\u0026rsquo;s \u0026ldquo;navigational map view\u0026rdquo; has been a bit meager.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ENow, a research team led by \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/dyerlab.gatech.edu\/people\/pi-profile\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EEva Dyer, a computational neuroscientist and electrical engineer\u003C\/a\u003E, has imaged brains at that \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.eneuro.org\/content\/4\/5\/ENEURO.0195-17.2017\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Emap-like or \u0026ldquo;meso\u0026rdquo; scale\u0026nbsp;using the most powerful X-ray beams in the country\u003C\/a\u003E. The imaging scale gives an overview of the intercellular landscape of the brain at a level relevant to small neural networks, which are at the core of the brain\u0026rsquo;s \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/soundcloud.com\/georgia_tech\/the-brain-cosmos-in-the-cranium-part-2-neurons-compute\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Eability to compute\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EDyer, who recently joined the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, also studies how the brain computes via its signaling networks, and this imaging technique could someday open new windows onto how they work.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHighest-energy X-rays\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EA powerful \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nature.com\/subjects\/x-ray-tomography\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EX-ray tomography scanner\u003C\/a\u003E allowed the researchers to image particularly thick sections of the brains of mice, which afforded them views into intact neural areas much larger than are customary in microscope imaging. The scanner operated on the same basic principle as a hospital CT scanner, but this scan used high-energy X-ray photons generated in a synchrotron, a facility the size of dozens of football fields.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) generates the highest-energy X-ray beams in the country at its synchrotron,\u0026rdquo; said Dyer, who co-led the study with \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.anl.gov\/bio\/person\/narayanan-bobby-kasthuri\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EANL\u0026rsquo;s Bobby Kasthuri\u003C\/a\u003E at \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.anl.gov\/photos\/advanced-photon-source\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ethe Advanced Photon Source synchrotron\u003C\/a\u003E. \u0026ldquo;They\u0026rsquo;ve studied all kinds of materials with really powerful X-rays. Then they got interested in studying the brain.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe technique also revealed capillary grids interlacing brain tissues. They dominated the images, with cell bodies of brain cells evenly speckling capillaries like pebbles in a steel wool sponge.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Our brain cells are embedded in this sea of vasculature,\u0026rdquo; said Dyer, an assistant professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.bme.gatech.edu\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EWallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe study on the new images \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.eneuro.org\/content\/4\/5\/ENEURO.0195-17.2017\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Eappeared in the journal eNeuro on Tuesday, October 17, 2017\u003C\/a\u003E. The team included researchers from Johns Hopkins University, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the Argonne National Laboratory, and the University of Pennsylvania. The work was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ENeural forest for the trees\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EElectron microscopy already captures neuronal details in impressive clarity. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) makes great visuals of brain structures and broad neural signaling.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESo, why do researchers even need mesoscale imaging?\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;FMRIs image at a high level, and with many microscopes, you\u0026rsquo;re zoomed in too far to recognize the forest for the trees,\u0026rdquo; Dyer said. \u0026ldquo;Though you can see a lot with them, you also can miss a lot.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;If you look at brain signaling on the level of individual neurons, it looks very mysterious, but if you take a step back and observe the activity of a population of hundreds of neurons instead, you might see simpler, clearer patterns that intuitively make more sense.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn an earlier study, Dyer discovered that \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.biorxiv.org\/content\/early\/2016\/10\/14\/080861\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ehand motion directions corresponded with reliable neural signaling patterns in the brain\u0026rsquo;s motor neocortex\u003C\/a\u003E. The signals did not occur across single neurons or a few dozen but instead across groups of hundreds of neurons. Mesoscale imaging reveals a spatial view on that same order of hundreds of neurons.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.rh.gatech.edu\/features\/cosmos-cranium\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EAlso READ: The Brain \u0026ndash; Cosmos in the Cranium\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMegamap dreams\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers have also been able to couple their new meso-level imaging technique with extremely detailed electron microscopy. And that has the potential to take them closer to a kind of Google Earth for the brain by combining mesoscale or map-like views with zoomed-in or street-like views.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;We have begun doing X-ray tomography on large brain tissues, then we\u0026rsquo;ve gone deeper into specific tiny regions of interest in the same tissue with an electron microscope to see the full connectome there,\u0026rdquo; Dyer said. The connectome refers to the total scheme of the hundreds of individual connections between neurons.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers hope to someday be able to switch from a mesoscale view to close-up view, a bit like Google Earth.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EZeroing in then zooming in\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;I think what we\u0026rsquo;re going to need in neuroscience is this ability to traverse across different scales,\u0026rdquo; Dyer said. She envisions a future multi-scale imaging technology that is useful in understanding neurological diseases.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;We want to be able to tell somebody researching a disease what the underlying anatomy of their lab sample is in an automated way,\u0026rdquo; she said. \u0026ldquo;You could navigate using this mesoscale view to get the context of where the damage is.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThen the user could zoom in on a \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.rh.gatech.edu\/news\/596973\/fight-against-top-killer-clogged-arteries-garners-acclaimed-nih-award\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Eblocked artery\u003C\/a\u003E or destroyed tissue analogous to the way satellite imagery can zoom in on traffic jams to see what\u0026rsquo;s causing them.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFrom X-ray to graphic image\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ELike a navigational map, the final images in the study were colorful, clear, mesoscale graphic depictions. They were based on the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nature.com\/subjects\/x-ray-tomography\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EX-ray tomography\u003C\/a\u003E, but a lot was involved in getting from the X-ray to the image.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFirst, the thick section of brain rotated in the high-energy X-ray beam, which was transformed into an image analogous to the output of a CT scanner. Then structures and characteristics were identified by humans and algorithms before they were computed into three-dimensional, color-coded vasculature and cell bodies.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe details of individual cells were very basic. In neurons, often the nuclei were visible in the X-ray tomography image, and axons wrapped in \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.brainfacts.org\/brain-basics\/neuroanatomy\/articles\/2015\/myelin\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Emyelin\u003C\/a\u003E (white matter) sometimes appeared as well.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EPragmatic computation\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe new mesoscale imaging of brain samples also has pragmatic advantages.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIt may be possible to examine minuscule brain regions piece by piece with electron microscopes then compute them together into a complete image of the brain, but it\u0026rsquo;s hardly practical. \u0026ldquo;Producing a three-dimensional map of just a \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cortical_column\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ecubic millimeter of the brain\u003C\/a\u003E with an electron microscope requires processing \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=Dictionary#dobs=petabyte\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Epetabyte\u003C\/a\u003Es of data,\u0026rdquo; Dyer said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBy contrast, the researchers need 100 gigabytes of data to compute a one-cubic-millimeter image of brain tissue using mesoscale X-ray tomography scans of thicker brain sections. But the researchers\u0026rsquo; goal is to not have to slice the tissue at all.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Eventually, we want to be able to image whole brains, as is, with this method to see the entirety of their neural networks and other structures.\u0026quot;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.rh.gatech.edu\/features\/alzheimers-killing-mind-first\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EAlso read: Alzheimer\u0026rsquo;s: Killing the Mind First\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThis study was co-authored by William Gray Roncal and Joshua T. Vogelstein of\u0026nbsp;Johns Hopkins University, Judy Prasad of the University of Chicago, Hugo L. Fernandes of Northwestern University; Doga G\u0026uuml;rsoy, Vincent De Andrade, Kamel Fezzaa and Xianghui Xiao of Argonne National Laboratory; Chris Jacobsen of Argonne and Northwestern, and Konrad K\u0026ouml;rding of the University of Pennsylvania. Research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facilities operated by Argonne National Laboratory (contract DE-AC02-06CG11357), the National Institute of Mental Health at the National Institutes of Health (grant U01MH109100), the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity MICrONS project, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency SIMPLEX program (contract N66001-15-C-4041) and DARPA GRAPHS program (contract N66001-14-1-4028).\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWriter\u003C\/strong\u003E: Ben Brumfield\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EImagine Google Earth with only the street view and a far-away satellite view but not much of a map view. Brain imaging, for the most part, has been missing just that, and a\u0026nbsp;lot of research on how the brain computes happens on that level. New imaging tackles this special view of the brain with the highest-energy X-rays in the country\u0026nbsp;that illuminate\u0026nbsp;thick sections of a mouse brain.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"How the brain computes can arguably be best studied on the \u0022meso\u0022 scale, and new imaging makes brain tissue visible on that level."}],"uid":"31759","created_gmt":"2017-10-17 15:20:38","changed_gmt":"2017-10-17 19:03:53","author":"Ben Brumfield","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2017-10-17T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2017-10-17T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"597499":{"id":"597499","type":"image","title":"high-energy X-ray image thick brain section","body":null,"created":"1508249128","gmt_created":"2017-10-17 14:05:28","changed":"1508249903","gmt_changed":"2017-10-17 14:18:23","alt":"","file":{"fid":"227756","name":"brain nav1.small_.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/brain%20nav1.small_.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/brain%20nav1.small_.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":6301109,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/brain%20nav1.small_.jpg?itok=i3O8JZ9D"}},"597510":{"id":"597510","type":"image","title":"Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory","body":null,"created":"1508255086","gmt_created":"2017-10-17 15:44:46","changed":"1508262997","gmt_changed":"2017-10-17 17:56:37","alt":"","file":{"fid":"227765","name":"APS.synch_.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/APS.synch_.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/APS.synch_.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1168136,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/APS.synch_.jpg?itok=BUuxnrQ4"}},"597504":{"id":"597504","type":"image","title":"Eva Dyer with meso-scale brain image","body":null,"created":"1508251324","gmt_created":"2017-10-17 14:42:04","changed":"1508256226","gmt_changed":"2017-10-17 16:03:46","alt":"","file":{"fid":"227760","name":"Dyer-office.small_.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Dyer-office.small_.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Dyer-office.small_.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":3678867,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Dyer-office.small_.jpg?itok=rlIEH0nc"}},"597501":{"id":"597501","type":"image","title":"Navigational view of mouse brain section close-up","body":null,"created":"1508250356","gmt_created":"2017-10-17 14:25:56","changed":"1508256339","gmt_changed":"2017-10-17 16:05:39","alt":"","file":{"fid":"227758","name":"brain.nav_.close_.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/brain.nav_.close_.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/brain.nav_.close_.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":4315592,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/brain.nav_.close_.jpg?itok=jqaCzt10"}},"597511":{"id":"597511","type":"image","title":"ANL Advanced Photon Source synchrotron ","body":null,"created":"1508255184","gmt_created":"2017-10-17 15:46:24","changed":"1508255343","gmt_changed":"2017-10-17 15:49:03","alt":"","file":{"fid":"227766","name":"APS.synch_.bird_.small_.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/APS.synch_.bird_.small_.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/APS.synch_.bird_.small_.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":6752159,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/APS.synch_.bird_.small_.jpg?itok=BAApLfPQ"}},"597503":{"id":"597503","type":"image","title":"Advanced Photon Source meso-scale brain imaging","body":null,"created":"1508250918","gmt_created":"2017-10-17 14:35:18","changed":"1508256257","gmt_changed":"2017-10-17 16:04:17","alt":"","file":{"fid":"227759","name":"brain.nav_.sync_.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/brain.nav_.sync_.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/brain.nav_.sync_.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":926968,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/brain.nav_.sync_.jpeg?itok=SR546Fpl"}},"597500":{"id":"597500","type":"image","title":"Building of meso-scale brain image","body":null,"created":"1508250134","gmt_created":"2017-10-17 14:22:14","changed":"1508256295","gmt_changed":"2017-10-17 16:04:55","alt":"","file":{"fid":"227757","name":"brain.depict.small_.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/brain.depict.small_.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/brain.depict.small_.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":7801214,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/brain.depict.small_.jpg?itok=npPHEc6x"}}},"media_ids":["597499","597510","597504","597501","597511","597503","597500"],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"138","name":"Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"}],"keywords":[{"id":"987","name":"imaging"},{"id":"1912","name":"brain"},{"id":"26461","name":"neurology"},{"id":"175945","name":"brain signaling"},{"id":"175944","name":"brain computation"},{"id":"175942","name":"neuron cell body"},{"id":"1443","name":"vasculature"},{"id":"175946","name":"Eva Dyer"},{"id":"175947","name":"Argonne National Laboratory"},{"id":"175943","name":"Advanced Photon Source synchrotron"},{"id":"175948","name":"Bobby Kasthuri"},{"id":"175939","name":"high-energy x-ray"},{"id":"175950","name":"meso-scale brain image"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71891","name":"Health and Medicine"},{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch News\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n177 North Avenue\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nAtlanta, Georgia \u0026nbsp;30332-0181 \u0026nbsp;USA\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMedia Relations Contact\u003C\/strong\u003E: Ben Brumfield (404-660-1408)\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}